Chapters 1 through 5I, Daniel by Robert RiggsA
book length commentary on the Old Testament Book of Daniel

DISCLAIMERThe opinions and
interpretations expressed in this book are strictly those of the author, and
do not represent official opinions or interpretations of any agency of the
Baha'i Administrative Order.

FOREWORDAs far as the author is
concerned, the reader is permitted to make duplicate copies of this work and
to distribute them, provided (1) that he/she makes no attempt to obtain a
copyright, and (2) that he/she does not realize a monetary profit, and (3)
that the ENTIRE work, including the DISCLAIMER and this FOREWORD, is
reproduced and distributed, and (4) that no alterations and/or additions to
the text are to be made without the author's approval. Sections of the text of
this work up to 1,000 words in length may be quoted and/or reprinted for the
purposes of criticism or commentary without the express permission of the
author, provided the source(s) of the quote(s) is/are given.

In BAHA'I NEWS, No. 77, September 1933, Shoghi Effendi tells us
that only the words of 'Abdu'l-Baha [regarding biblical exegesis] are truly
authoritative, but that if his statements cannot be discovered, we are free to
tentatively accept the opinions of scholars.

PREFACEThis essay does not begin to
exhaust the wealth of meaning in the Book of Daniel. For one thing, it does
not address the spiritual teachings in the Book, even though they are as
pertinent today as when written. Nor does it review the history or Teachings
of the Baha'i Faith, which we believers accept as the working out of the
Divine Will at the "time of the end."

We will not dwell on such mystical esoterica as number symbolism, gematria,
astrological symbolism, and the like, except where minimally necessary. These
subjects have already been addressed in a companion work, "The Apocalypse
Unsealed", to which the interested reader is referred. This is not meant to
imply that there is nothing to gain by applying these tools to Daniel. To the
contrary, this writer is convinced that there is a vast amount of mystical
esoterica contained in Daniel awaiting some future discoverer.

During the research for "I, Daniel", certain facts and Tablets were
discovered that have caused this writer to reconsider his interpretations of a
few passages in the Apocalypse. These are addressed in an appendix to the
present book.

Certain general observations might be made here. Daniel and Revelation are
the two great apocalyptic works in Judeo-Christian literature. The Book of
Daniel is directed primarily to the Jewish believer, whereas the Book of
Revelation is directed primarily to the Christian believer. Both Books are
profound, both Books are glorious; both Books are Divine Works; both Books
confirm Baha'u'llah as the Latter Day Redeemer of the entire human race.

R. F. R. Charlottesville, [VA,] April, 1990

INTRODUCTION

"PRAGMATIC INTUITION"The method this
investigator has used in interpreting Daniel may be described as "pragmatic
intuition": try out various plausible ideas until you find the one that works.
Since many worthier scholars have failed to unseal the secrets of Daniel, one
may conclude that routine scholarship probably cannot unseal prophetic
writings. Recourse might be made to the method of intuitive discovery that is
familiar to creative scientists and artists; through it we might leap beyond
what can be reached through routine scholarship.

If this essay succeeds, it is not because the author has any special
abilities at prophecy-reading, nor does it suggest that he has had any
extraordinary divine assistance. Instead, it means that the writer may have
stumbled upon some truth, and anyone with adequate patience and with a
penchant for historical research can achieve, and probably improve on, the
result.

THE "PROPHET'S-EYE" [deleted in this version]

A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED It
will be necessary to define certain terms that will be used in the following
pages. Most of them have been developed and used by other Biblical
commentators and scholars with various degrees of success.

First, we must understand what is meant by the "archetype of a number." In
the language of ancient number symbolism, any number will have an archetype
between "one" and "nine." It is found by continuously adding the digits in a
number until one digit remains. For example, the number 1269 has an
archetype of "nine"; since 1 + 2 + 6 + 9 = 18, and (continuing the process) 1
+ 8 = nine. Another example: the archetype of 258 is "six"; since 2 + 5
+ 8 = 15, and (continuing) 1 + 5 = six.

The simplest cases are "decadal successors" like 7, 70 , 700, 7000, etc.,
all of which have an archetype of seven. Similarly, 3, 30, 300, 3000, etc. all
have an archetype of three. These last two examples will be used in the
explanation of Daniel 9.

Next, we have to know the meanings of certain temporal terms: A
"prophetic day" usually means a calendar year. Most Biblical scholars
justify this definition by quoting Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6, in which it
is said that a day of the Lord is equal to a year. But, by recognizing that a
number-archetype may be involved, " One prophetic day" may equal 1 year, or 10
years, or 100 years, and so on. It behooves us to consider whether some
decadal successor of "one" might be meant in its particular context.

An "evening and a morning" is taken as an exact "prophetic day." The
justification for this definition is that it works well in the one place it is
encountered: Daniel 8:13.

A "prophetic week" usually means seven calendar years. But, again, if
"seven prophetic days" are intended, it might mean 7 years, or 7 decades, or
even 7 centuries. In the text of Daniel chapter 9, it will be convenient to
emphasize this fact by retaining the correct translation of the Hebrew word
"shabua" as "seven."

A "sabbatic year" is a special term and is equal to 7 decades (i.e., 70
years). This definition is arbitrary and is equal to the span of time of the
Jewish exile in Babylon.

A "prophetic year" is 360 calendar days. Again, this definition is
arbitrary but sometimes useful. It is based on the 360-day calendar of ancient
Mesopotamia and Egypt. The use of the 360-day calendar in biblical allegory
can be inferred by correlating the dates in Genesis 7:11,24 and 8:4.

A "time" is taken as 360 lunar years. The justification for this definition
is (1) the use of a lunar calendar in the ancient Near East, and (2) allowing
a year for each day of the 360-day "prophetic year."

A lunar year is the time required for twelve lunations. It is equal to
354.367 days.

A solar year is the time between equinoxes or solstices. It is equal to
365.242 days.

The word "times" is taken as 2-"times," that is 720 lunar years. The
justification for this definition is the dual form of the Hebrew word in
Daniel 12:7 in which "times" is clearly 2-"times."

ABOUT TRANSLATIONS Anyone who has
compared different translations of Biblical texts for the first time will
receive a rude awakening. Translations are generally inconsistent and often
disagree on important particulars. The special case of Daniel is even worse
than most, since much of the Hebrew is obscure and may have suffered some
distortions along the way.

The method that this writer has used to minimize this problem was to
compare several translations, word by word. When serious disagreements
occurred, the writer chose the translation that seemed to be the most
consistent with the rest of the Book and with the historical scenario implied
by the prophecy. On rare occasions, it was found necessary to "clean up" the
result by rewording sections to make them more readable, hopefully without
straying from the meaning of the original translations. The translations most
used were The New English Bible (1970), The Revised English Bible (1989), The
New International Version (1983), The Revised Standard Version (1951), and the
King James Version (1611).

For whatever it is worth, this writer usually, but not always, found the
New English Bible to be the easiest to correlate with historical events. It is
noteworthy that both English Bibles were translated by scholars drawn from
various British universities without denominational considerations. Also, in
the words of Daniel Ebor, Chairman of the (multi-denominational) Joint
Committee in charge of the translation of the New English Bible,

... There is probably no member of the panel who has not found himself
obliged to give up, perhaps with lingering regret, a cherished view about the
meaning of this or that difficult passage, but in the end the panel accepted
corporate responsibility for the interpretation set forth in the translation
adopted.

Chapter One

THE FOUR ERAS OF BABYLON In
Chapter 2 of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Chaldea (neo-Babylonia),
has a dream and challenges his 'wise men: magicians, exorcists, sorcerers, and
Chaldeans' both to describe and interpret his dream or to suffer death. None
of the wise men summoned before the king were able to meet the challenge, and
Nebuchadnezzar, in a fit of rage, ordered the execution of all the wise men of
Babylon. Daniel, being a 'wise man,' was among those threatened with
execution. But with the help of God, Daniel was able to reveal the king's
dream, was thereby to save the lives of his colleagues and to win other
favors.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream was of an image, 'huge and dazzling, . . . fearful
to behold':

Daniel 232 The head of the image
was of fine gold, its breasts and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of
bronze,33 Its legs of iron, its feet part iron and part clay. 34 While
(Nebuchadnezzar) looked, a stone was hewn from a mountain, not by human
hands; it struck the image on its feet of part iron and part clay and
shattered them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the
gold, were all shattered into fragments and were swept away like chaff
before the wind from a threshing floor in summer, until no trace of them
remained. But the stone which struck the image grew into a great mountain
filling the whole earth.

In verse 28, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that the dream reveals what is to
be at the 'end of the age.' In later verses, Daniel interprets the dream as
four 'kingdoms,' the kingdom of gold referring to that of Nebuchadnezzar
himself; the silver kingdom would replace Nebuchadnezzar's but would be
inferior to his; the third or bronze kingdom would have sovereignty 'over the
whole world.'

Still later, the fourth kingdom would be as 'strong as iron,' breaking and
shattering the whole earth. But the kingdom of 'iron mixed with clay' would be
a divided kingdom, partly strong and partly brittle. The 'stone hewn from a
mountain, not by human hands' refers to a final kingdom to be established by
God that would shatter all the other kingdoms, while it shall itself, endure
forever.

It is interesting that Nebuchadnezzar's dream was delivered in the metaphor
of the traditional four "eras" of man: gold, silver, bronze, and iron, a canon
held by various philosophers and theologians of antiquity. In Hebrew mystical
terminology, a "day of creation," a "Lord's Day," "era," or a "world" referred
to phases of progressive revelation. <1> The succession of Days or
eras represents different cultures with different customs and religions, what
today's historians would call civilizations.

There is also an astrological connotation of an "age," related to the
gradual shifting of the stellar constellations of the zodiac throughout the
course of millennia, called the precession of the equinoxes by astronomers.
Daniel lived at a time when the sun was entering the constellation PISCES at
the SPRING equinox, and the constellation Virgo at the Fall equinox; that is,
they were entering the astrological age of PISCES-Virgo. Today, we are
entering the succeeding astrological age of AQUARIUS-Leo. Thus, in
astrological terms, our own time is the "end of the age." This sometimes
bewildering subject is discussed at length by de Santillana in Hamlet's Mill.

The metals have qualities descriptive of the eras or civilizations: Gold is
the most precious metal, brilliant and desirable for its symbolic or
"spiritual" attributes. Silver is also precious but less so, and less desired
for its spiritual attributes. Bronze is a strong, blended metal, less desired
than either silver or gold, but an important metal of war and commerce.
Finally, iron is the strongest of metals, the metal of the sword, least
desired of the four for its symbolic or spiritual attributes.

We can, indeed, identify four eras or civilizations in Chaldea, beginning
with Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, sixth century BC. Chaldea was the heir and
participant in the civilization of Mesopotamia, the primal region of Chaldea.
To Chaldea, Sumer, Assyria, and old Babylonia we owe the invention of the
first practical system of writing that eventually led to our modern alphabet,
the wheel, origins of scientific mathematics and astronomy (via the
pseudoscience of astrology), the idea of a social system based upon a written
code of law, and an elected bicameral legislative system of government.

The religion of Chaldaea had its beginnings in remote antiquity, perhaps
more than five thousand years ago. It involved a rich complex of ritual and
myth that has profoundly affected the religions of the west--especially
Judaism and Christianity. The Book of Genesis has many parallels in Chaldaean
literature--the Creation story, Paradise, the Flood, the Cain-Abel rivalry,
the Babel of Tongues. So, too, does the concept of a personal God, the concept
that man was created primarily to serve God, and the concept that God's
creative power is in His Word. From the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews
acquired chants, such as the Kol Nidre, that are still used today. The
Christians acquired, among other things, the rite of Baptism. <3>

Nebuchadnezzar's capital, Babylon, was the greatest and most impressive
city on earth, with massive walls, imposing temples, and soaring towers. Some
historians believe one of these soaring towers, completed by Nebuchadnezzar,
the three-hundred-foot-high ziggurat of Etemananki, to be the fabulous "Tower
of Babel" that has inspired poets, artists, and mystics for millenia. Another
architectural triumph of Nebuchadnezzar was the "hanging gardens," considered
to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Babylon was visited by
the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century BC, who described it as a
city "with such magnificence that none other can approach it." The defensive
towers that punctuated the walls of Babylon were so broad across the top that
there was "room for a four-horse chariot to turn."

The golden era of Chaldaea was short lived. The rulers of Chaldaea who
followed Nebuchadnezzar were weak and vacillating. The last king, Nabonidus,
engrossed in antiquarian researches, incurred the wrath of many of his
compatriots by tampering with established religious beliefs and customs. His
weakened kingdom was easily conquered by the brilliant warrior-statesman Cyrus
the Great of Media-Persia in 539 BC, who had a well-deserved reputation for
respecting the traditions of those he conquered.

We identify the Medeo-Persian period of Chaldaea as its silver era. The
religion of Cyrus was Zoroastrianism, and while Cyrus was scrupulous in
preserving the religious traditions of Chaldaea, it was inevitable that
Zoroastrianism would make inroads into the region. It was claimed by many
scholars that some of the beliefs of Zoroastrianism have also made their way
into Judaism and Christianity.

While much of its capital Babylon was destroyed by Cyrus, it retained its
identity as a great city as confirmed by Herodotus and others of the time.
Nevertheless, Chaldaean culture was on the decline. An insurrection by Babylon
in 521 BCE led to the destruction of the walls of Babylon by Darius, and, by
the fourth century BC, the cultural identity of Chaldaea was altered forever.

The Medeo-Persian period of Chaldaea was disrupted by the conquests of
Alexander the Great in 331 BC, the Macedonian-Greek conqueror of the known
world whom we will meet again in another chapter. By Alexander's time, Babylon
had become the winter capital of the Medeo-Persian kings, less opulent than
the ceremonial capital of Perseopolis and largely in ruins. In fact, Alexander
had intended to rebuild the great ziggurat of Babylon as a symbol of his
conquest, but the task proved to be too difficult and the project was
abandoned. Chaldaea under Alexander and his Seleucid successors continued its
decline.

The Seleucids, too, soon went into decline. They withdrew from much of
Chaldaea and were, in turn, conquered by Rome. Chaldaea then became a region
of contention between the Roman Empire and a revived Persian empire under the
Parthians and the Sassanians. Chaldaea was eventually recovered by Persia but
continued its cultural decline. Throughout this chaotic period, Chaldaea
retained a large population, canals and dykes were kept in repair, and
commerce and architecture flourished. But in spite of the tenacious economic
vitality of the region, the reins of government were held by the "vilest
tyranny of sots, drunkards, tyrants, lunatics, savages, and abandoned women
..." <4>

The Hellenistic period of Chaldea, initiated by Alexander, was continued by
his Seleucid heirs and, intermittently, by Rome. We identify the Hellenistic
(Graeco-Roman) period as the bronze era of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, roughly a
millennium.

The culture and belief system of Hellenism had its impact on the entire
region conquered by Alexander and his Hellenistic successors. The pagan
religion of the Hellenistic civilization persisted for many centuries, even
after Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman empire in the
fourth century CE. And while it can be argued that Roman Christianity made
some inroads into parts of Chaldaea, the long-term effects were largely
inconsequential.

The iron era of Chaldaea was ushered in by the Islamic conquests of the
Seventh Century CE. The invincible Arabian warriors swept over the known world
like a "plague of locusts." Most of Chaldaea was in the hands of the Muslim
Caliphate by 633. Jerusalem fell in 637, and by 644 most of Persia and its
great horde of treasures had been taken.

But the Caliphate (Successorship) of Muhammad contained a fatal flaw: there
was no written document defining the Islamic Successorship, only a deathbed
statement by Muhammad declaring the young and inexperienced 'Ali to be his
Caliph. The result was a permanent and bitter split between the two major
factions of Islam--the Sunni and the Shi'ih--that has persisted to this day.
The Sunni faction has promoted a Caliphate based on apparent capability and
experience; the Shi'ih faction has promoted a Caliphate based on 'Ali's
descendants--the Imamate. Thus the Muslim empire proved to be 'brittle," like
'iron mixed with clay.' By the end of Caliph Harun ar-Rashid's reign in 809
CE, the Muslim empire had passed its zenith and had broken into pieces.

Under early Islam, the region of old Chaldaea had a resurgence of
prosperity reminiscent of the era of Alexander's empire. The city of Babylon
continued to decay and became a ruin, but the capital of the Muslim empire was
placed in the region of Chaldaea, briefly at Damascus and finally at
Baghdad--not far from the ruins of Babylon.

During the reign of the 'fourth kingdom' and as the iron era draws to a
close in Daniel's interpretation, the final 'kingdom' of divine origin is
represented by a 'stone hewn from a mountain.' A mountain has often
represented a religion in sacred literature, while a stone may represent
Truth. In ancient times, and even in some areas of today's world, "stones from
heaven" (meteorites) have become objects of reverence. The Ka'bih at Mecca
still contains such a stone which was revered even before Muhammad's time.

The symbol is appropriate and describes the Baha'i Revelation (stone) that
was hewn from the Faith (mountain) of the Bab. The stone struck the weakest
foot of the Muslim world--the iron mixed with clay--that symbolizes the Shi'ih
tradition centered in modern Iran. Daniel goes on to prophesy that this stone
will, itself, become a great mountain that will shatter all the other
'kingdoms' and will endure 'forever.' The meaning is clear: the Baha'i Faith
will inevitably become a great religion that will transcend all others, both
in spiritual power and in duration.

Notes for Chapter One1. Ref 10 2. Ref 14 3.
Ref 15 4. Ref 2, p. 639

Chapter Two

THE SEVEN TIMESChapter 4 of
Daniel purports to be a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar 'to all peoples and
nations of every language living in the whole world,' exalting and glorifying
the Most high God, the Everlasting One, the King of heaven. The background for
this outpouring of praise begins with another dream of Nebuchadnezzar that
only Daniel can interpret for him.

Nebuchadnezzar first dreams of a tree of great height at the center of the
earth, visible to earth's farthest bounds, yielding food for all, and shelter
for beasts and birds. This is followed by another vision in which a Watcher, a
Holy One, comes down from heaven and commands that the tree be hewn down, its
branches and foliage stripped, but commands that the stump and roots be left
in the ground.

Daniel 4:15-17 ... So, tethered
with an iron ring, let him eat his fill of the lush grass; let him be
drenched with the dew of heaven and share the lot of the beasts in their
pasture; let his mind cease to be a man's mind, and let him be given the
mind of a beast. 16 Let seven times pass over him. The
issue has been determined by the Watchers and the sentence pronounced by the
Holy Ones. 17 Thereby the living will know that the Most High is sovereign
in the kingdom of men; he gives the kingdom to whom He will and He may set
over it the humblest of mankind. [ New English Bible ]

Daniel's interpretation of the dream is that the tree represents
Nebuchadnezzar. The power is to be taken from Nebuchadnezzar, he will be
banished from society, will live with the wild beasts, feed on grass, and be
rained on until seven times pass over him.

Daniel 4 25 ... Seven
times will pass over you until you have learnt that the Most High
is sovereign over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. 26 The
command was given to leave the stump of the tree with its roots. by this you
may know that from the time you acknowledge the sovereignty of heaven your
rule will endure.

The term 'seven times' is repeated thrice in this chapter before the events
indicated by the dream happened to Nebuchadnezzar. The trigger that caused his
downfall was a later boast: of the great city of Babylon that he had built and
of his own mighty power and majesty. A voice from heaven immediately warns him
that he will be banished, etc., and that seven times will pass over him until
he has learnt that the Most High is the true Sovereign of all mankind.

The events prophesied by Daniel then occurred; Nebuchadnezzar was banished,
ate grass like oxen, etc.. At the end of the appointed time:

Daniel 4 34 At the end of the
appointed time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes to heaven and returned to
my right mind.

after which Nebuchadnezzar gives praise and glory to the Most High for the
restoration of his sanity and his kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar's spell of insanity is interesting in its own right because
it warns us of the folly of arrogance before the Lord of the Universe. But the
emphasis on the 'seven times' seems to indicate that the revelation has a
hidden meaning that should be investigated.

As usual, Daniel gives us everything we need to date the beginning of the
seven times. Daniel 2:1 gives the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign as the
date when Nebuchadnezzar began to have troubling dreams. This would be the
year 603 BC. The date for the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's madness is given
in 4:29 as "after twelve months." There is no other date given between verses
2:1 and 4:29. Thus the beginning of the count of the seven times is 602 BCE.

As explained in the Introduction, a "time" is 360 lunar years. Seven times
is therefore equal to 2520 lunar years or 2445 solar years. This is the span
of time between 602 BCE and the Edict of Toleration in 1844 CE. The Edict of
Toleration permitted the Jewish people to resettle the holy land after almost
eighteen centuries of exile, and was the prerequisite necessary for the
re-establishment of Israel as a modern nation. More will be said about this
Edict in later chapters.

Another curious thing about 'seven times' is that it is twice the 'time,
times and half a time' (3 1/2 times) that will be found elsewhere in Daniel
and Revelation. This is 1260 lunar years. The year 1260 AH in the Muslim
calendar corresponds to 1844 CE in the Christian calendar. In other words, the
Muslim calendar starts half way between Nebuchadnezzar's spell of insanity and
the Edict of Toleration.

The Watchers and Holy Ones are also interesting. In certain ancient
mystical writings, the Watchers and Holy Ones, (the "Household of the Upper
World") are listed as Uriel, Raphael, Michael, Zerachiel, Gabriel, and Remiel.
Four of these Angels are represented as 'Faces on the four sides of the
Deity': Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. Only two of these are
named in Daniel: Michael and Gabriel. In later chapters of this book, the case
will be made that Michael and Gabriel correspond to Baha'u'llah and the Bab at
the time of the end.

Notes for Chapter Two1. Ref. 10, p. 52 2.
According to Judeo-Christian mysticism, Gabriel is the Archangel of Yesod
(Foundation). Historically, the appearance of Gabriel has often accompanied
an important announcement of a new 'foundation'; that is, the beginning of a
new era of human events. For example, Gabriel was the one who delivered the
Revelation to Muhammad on Mount Hira that He was to be the Messenger to
mankind. In Luke 1, it is Gabriel who delivers the message to Zechariah that
he will be the father of John the Baptist, and to Mary that she will be the
mother of Jesus.

Michael is the Archangel of Hod (Glory , and is associated in sacred
literature with victory. For example, Michael is the Victor over the forces
of the dragon in Revelation 12.

A modern Jungian psychologist would call Gabriel and Michael 'archetypes
of the collective unconscious.' We will have to await our own encounters
with the invisible realm to find out if Michael and Gabriel exist literally,
or figuratively, or both.

Ancient mystical esoterica is a vast study unto itself. We prefer to
leave the exploration of that maze to experts. But the "four sides of the
Deity" suggests an astrological connotation: the four sides of the Deity may
correspond to the four corners of the "square earth," that is, the four
principal directions of the cosmos. If so, Michael and Gabriel may stand
watch over the equinoxes, while Raphael and Uriel may stand watch over the
solstices. The equinoxes of the new astrological age we are now entering are
in the signs Leo and Aquarius. In reference 1, we find that these two signs
probably correspond to Baha'u'llah and the Bab. Raphael and Uriel would then
stand watch over Taurus and Flying Eagle (Scorpio), the signs of
'Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi.

Chapter Three

THE FOUR BEASTSThese visions
appeared to Daniel in the first year of Belshazzar, the (caretaker?) king of
Babylon, as Daniel lay in his bed:

Daniel 72 ... I, Daniel ... saw
a great sea churned up by the four winds of heaven, 3 And the four huge
beasts coming out of the sea, each one different from the others. 4 The
first was like a lion but had eagle's wings. I watched while its wings were
plucked off and it was lifted from the ground and made to stand on two feet
like a man.

Daniel's vision begins with the sea of humanity, 'churned up' by the forces
of heaven. Great movements and nations are to result from this churning, each
symbolized by a 'beast' with different attributes.

The lion with eagle's wings was a symbol used by the Assyrian kings. But
Assyria was conquered by an alliance of the Chaldaeans and the Medes near the
end of the seventh century BC, thereby initiating the Chaldaean
(neo-Babylonian) empire. The lion became a symbol prominent in Chaldaean art,
now without wings. The two "feet" of the "plucked lion" were Chaldaea and
Media.

Daniel 75 Then I saw another, a
second beast, like a bear. It was half crouching and had three ribs in its
mouth, between its teeth. the command was given: "Up, gorge yourself with
flesh."

The bear is an inhabitant of primitive wilderness areas, is slow-moving but
powerful. Its attributes describe Media-Persia before she undertook the
conquest of the Near East. Situated in a rugged and undeveloped region, Media
(soon to be called Media-Persia) was considered a poor empire without real
wealth. The bear is half crouching in Daniel's vision because, although
considered dangerous, Media-Persia did not appear desirous of attacking
Chaldaea or any other power in the Near east. The dangerous aspect of
Media-Persia is apparent from a look at a political map of the time that shows
Chaldaea and Lydia, the other great powers of the region, beneath the "jaws"
of the bear. It was only after an unwarranted and ill-advised attack upon
Media-Persia by King Croesus of Lydia in 546 BCE that the slow-moving bear
became a determined aggressor. <1>

Seven years after its annexation of Lydia, Media-Persia conquered Chaldaea;
after another fourteen years, she conquered Egypt. The three ribs in the
bear's jaws represent the three great kingdoms conquered by Media-Persia:
Lydia, Chaldaea, and Egypt.

Following the death of Darius the Mede, who had suffered a humiliating
defeat by the Greeks in 490 BC, Xerxes, the son of Darius, kept a slave by his
side at the dinner table whose job it was to whisper, "Master, remember the
Athenians." In 480 BC, Xerxes undertook a punitive invasion of Greece to
avenge his father's defeat. Thus the command to "gorge yourself with flesh"
was given by Xerxes to his vast army. Nevertheless, the invasion of Greece
ended in a second disastrous failure.

Daniel 7 6 After this as I gazed
I saw another, a beast like a leopard with four wings on its back; this
creature had four heads, and it was invested with sovereign power.

The leopard is descriptive of the empire of Alexander the Great: poised,
ready to leap, swift-moving, and highly successful in capturing its prey.

Alexander, in his "lair" of Macedonia, was poised, ready to leap onto Asia
in 335 BC. Behind him he had four great victories ("wings") in
Europe--Thessaly, Thrace, Illyria and Thebes. These four victories, achieved
in only one year, had set the stage for four more incredible victories in
Asia, achieved in only three years--Granicous, Issus, Tyre and Gaugamelia.
These four victories, corresponding to the four wings of victory of the
leopard in Daniel 7:6, achieved the capture of the entire Persian empire.

A "head" is that upon which a crown is placed--that is, a dominion. The
four heads of the leopard correspond to the four dominions that were
established upon the death of Alexander: those of Cassander, Lysimachus,
Seleucus, and Ptolemy.

Daniel 7 7 Next in my visions of
the night I saw a fourth beast, dreadful and grisly, exceedingly strong,
with great iron teeth and bronze claws. It crunched and devoured, and
trampled underfoot all that was left. It differed from all the beasts which
preceded it in having ten horns. 8 While I was considering the horns I saw
another horn, a little one, springing up among them, and three of the first
horns were uprooted to make room for it. And in that horn were eyes like the
eyes of a man, and a mouth that spoke proud words.

In later verses, Daniel receives further information regarding the beast
with ten horns that improves Daniel's understanding, and ours:

Daniel 7 23 ... The fourth beast
signifies a fourth kingdom which shall appear upon the earth. It shall
differ from the other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth, tread it
down and crush it. 24 As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings
shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from
the former ones and shall put down three kings. . .

The fourth beast is the Muslim empire, while the ten horns refer to its
rulers. The Muslim empire will combine the attributes of military power (iron
teeth) and economic greed (bronze claws).

A 'horn' is a "handle"; that is, a name. The ten horns represent names of
the leaders of the Usurpers of the Caliphate (Successorship) to Muhammad.

The first of these Usurpers was the House of Umayyah. Abu-Sufyan, an
idolater from Mecca, was the shrewd and infamous leader of the Umayyad clan,
and was the driving force behind the usurpation of the Islamic Caliphate from
'Ali, the rightful heir, in 661 CE.

There were fifteen leaders of the Umayyah, beginning with Abu-Sufyan. But
there were only ten names among these leaders, since several of these were
repeated. The unrepeated names were: Abu-Sufyan, Mu'awiya, Yazid, Marwan,
'Abdu'l-Malik, al-Walid, Sulayman, Umar, Hisham, and Ibraham.

Mu'awiya, the son of Abu-Sufyan, was the Caliph who introduced the
insidious practice of fabricating traditions ascribed to Muhammad, maligning
and denigrating 'Ali. Through his direction, several minions were bribed into
corrupting and distorting Muslim doctrine, text, belief and practice.
<2>

Following their fall from power in 750 CE, one Umayyad, 'Abd al-Rahman,
escaped to Andalusia (Spain) where he set up another Umayyad dynasty in 756
CE, usually called the "Cordoban Caliphate." The pattern of ten horns followed
the House of Umayyah to Spain. There were eighteen neo-Umayyad Caliphs of the
Cordoban Caliphate, but, again, with only ten unrepeated names: 'Abd
al-Rahman, Hisham, Hakam, Muhammad, Munzir, Abdullah, Hijab, Al-Mansur,
'Abdu'l Malik, Al-Mahdi, and Sulayman. The Cordoban Caliphate came to its end
in 1031 CE.

The beast with ten horns is a subject of Revelation 12, in which it is
revealed that the beast also has seven heads. The seven heads are the seven
dominions that were ruled by the Umayyah: Syria, Persia, Egypt, Africa,
Arabia, Andalusia, and Transoxania.

The fall of the House of Umayyah came at the hand of another tyrant: the
house of 'Abbas. Oddly enough, the House of 'Abbas also had ten 'horns,' from
their usurpation of power in 750 CE until their loss of sovereignty to the
Turks in 861 CE: As-Saffa, Al-Mansur, Al-Mahdi, Al-Hadi, Ar-Rashid, Al-Amin,
Al-Ma'mun, Al-Mu'tasim, Al-Wathiq, and Al-Mutawakkil. <3> While the
Umayyad dynasty was founded in Arabia, the Abbasid dynasty was founded in
Persia; and while the capital of the Umayyah was in Damascus, the capital of
the Abbasids was in Baghdad.

The rise to power of the House of 'Abbas had a history too complex to trace
here, but of particular interest is that, like the House of Umayyah, the
Abbasids used trickery and deceit in their rise to power. Those who had, in
the past, heroically resisted the "accursed Umayyah," were expecting to see a
member of the House of 'Ali assume the caliphate. Instead, it was the
nefarious leader of the House of 'Abbas who came out of hiding and seized the
reigns of power. His name was Abu'l-'Abbas 'Abdu'llah, very soon to become
known as As-Saffa, the 'Shedder of Blood.' As-Saffa was the 'little horn' in
Daniel's vision. During the rebellion, three Umayyad commanders were defeated.
These three had the names Yazid, Abdu'l-Malik and Marwan. It will be
seen that their names are included in the ten horns of the House of Umayyah,
thereby confirming the prophecy of Daniel 7:8, 24.

At the mosque of 'Ali in Kufah, a city that had been a center of the heroic
rebellion, As-Saffa ascended the pulpit and announced a reign of justice,
equity, and righteousness. The new Caliphate was to be a sacred trust that
would be handed over to Jesus, the Son of Mary, on His Second Coming.

Contrary to promises, the blasphemous and perfidious House of 'Abbas ruled
with teeth of iron and claws of bronze. In Revelation 13 the 'Abbasid dynasty
is characterized as the 'second beast' and the 'image of the first beast.'
Indeed, a reader of Islamic history finds little to recommend the 'Abbasids
over the Umayyah. It is noteworthy that Muhammad had prophesied

Qur'an 27:82 We will bring forth to them a beast from the earth. It
will speak to them, for mankind would not be convinced of our signs.

After the reign of the fourth beast, God the father, the Ancient of Days is
introduced, with 'robe as white and with the hair of His head like the
cleanest wool.' His white robe and hair signify His spotless spiritual
attributes and great wisdom. God is shown sitting on a throne of great power,
with 'wheels of blazing fire,' the same throne spoken of in Ezekiel 1 and in
Revelation 4. The wheels of fire are an astrological symbol, describing the
mechanism that ancient astronomers believed was used to move the firmament. A
'flowing river of fire' streams out from the throne, a river that destroys all
who are judged and condemned for their wrongdoing. 'The court sat and the
books were opened.' (Daniel 7:10)

God is then approached by 'one like a man coming with the clouds of
heaven.' This Figure is that of Baha'u'llah, the king of Glory, Who is given
everlasting sovereignty by God. <5> In later verses (Daniel 7:26-27), it
is explained that kingly power and everlasting sovereignty will be given to
the 'saints of the Most high,' a reference to the righteous who follow in the
footsteps of the Lord of Hosts.

The Ancient of Days is one title of Baha'u'llah. <6> After His
reception of everlasting sovereignty, Baha'u'llah will sit on the throne
beside the father and govern in the Name of God. <7>

There are two dates in Daniel 7 that require closer reading. In verse 25,
Daniel is informed that the saints shall be delivered into the power of the
fourth beast 'for a time, times and half a time.' The three and one half times
are 1260 lunar years and define the date in the Muslim lunar calendar (1260 AH
/ 1844 CE) that terminated the spiritual sovereignty of the beast. This date
has a double significance. Not only does it mark the Edict of Toleration; it
also marks the Declaration of the Bab, which ended the Dispensation of
Muhammad and terminated the spiritual sovereignty of the Muslim empire.

A less apparent date is given in verse 12:

Daniel 7 12 The rest of the
beasts, though deprived of their sovereignty, were allowed to remain alive
for a time and a season.

A season could be one fourth of a time or ninety years, making the time and
a season equal to 450 years. If lunar years are intended, and if the 'other
beasts' were also deprived of their spiritual sovereignty in 1844, then we
might expect an end to the other beasts around the year 437 of the Baha'i era.

Alas, it is far easier to explore the past than to augor the future! At the
rate events are moving, the date 437 BE is not an unreasonable estimate for
dating the end of the nations and the beginning of the Most Great Peace. But
this fool prefers to leave such speculations to other fools.

Notes for Chapter Three1. There is a famous
anecdote, related by Herodotus, connected with Croesus' decision to invade
Media-Persia. Croesus enquired of the two famous Oracles at Delphi and Pytho
as to whether he should undertake the invasion. The replies of both Oracles
agreed: if he invaded Media-Persia, he would destroy a great empire. Croesus
mistakenly assumed that the great empire to be destroyed would be
Media-Persia. 2. Ref 9, p. 192 3. The first Turkish dynasty, the
Seljuks, may have had ten horns also, but the last years of their Caliphate
were rather chaotic. The ten horns of the Seljuks were (possibly) Malik,
Toghrul, Alp, Barkiyaroq, Mahommed, Sinjar, Mahmud, Masud, Sulayman, and
Arslan. 4. Ref 9, p. 217 5. 'Man' and 'Son of Man' were ancient
titles for the Savior. The Savior always 'comes on the clouds of heaven,'
not literally but figuratively. See References 1, 10, & 16. 6. It is
also a fact that Baha'u'llah's hair was literally snow white, although He
followed local custom and had it dyed black. 7. See Revelation 3:21.

Chapter Four

A LITTLE HORNThis vision,
similar to that of the previous chapter, appeared to Daniel in the third year
of King Belshazzar's reign. He finds himself transported to the banks of the
Ulai canal at Susa, an ancient citadel of Persia. The locale is appropriate to
some of the events that are soon to be revealed to Daniel. He sees:

Daniel 83 . . . a ram with two
horns standing between me and the stream. The two horns were long, the one
longer than the other, growing up behind. 4 I watched the ram butting west
and north and south. No beasts could stand before it; no one could rescue
from its power. It did what it liked, making a display of its strength. 5
While I pondered this, suddenly a he-goat came from the west skimming over
the whole earth without touching the ground: it had a prominent horn between
its eyes. 6 It approached the two-horned ram which I had seen standing
between me and the stream and rushed at it with impetuous force. 7 I saw it
advance on the ram, working itself into a fury against it, then strike the
ram and break its two horns; the ram had no strength to resist. The he-goat
flung it to the ground and trampled on it, and there was no one to save the
ram. 8 Then the he-goat made a great display of its strength. Powerful as it
was, its great horn snapped and in its place there sprang out towards the
four quarters of heaven four prominent horns.

In later verses (Daniel 8:19-22), Daniel learns that the ram with two horns
signifies Media-Persia. The he-goat signifies Greece, the prominent horn
symbolizing its first king. The four prominent horns that 'sprang out towards
the four quarters of heaven' represent four kingdoms that will rise from the
first.

The "dangerous Medes" were closely related to the Persians (the longer
horn) to their east. For many years there were struggles between the Medes and
the Persians that ultimately resulted in the accession of Cyrus "the Persian"
to the Median throne in 550 BC.

But instead of reducing the Medes to a position of humiliation, Cyrus
treated the defeated Medes as equals. Thereafter, the empire had two names,
Media and Persia. In later centuries, the two-named empire became known simply
as Persia. Today, the remnant of the Medeo-Persian empire is known as Iran.

The prominent horn of the he-goat, of course, represents Alexander the
Great. Upon his death, the empire was divided into four parts: north, south,
east and west. These are discussed at more length in another chapter.

Daniel 89 Out of one of them
issued one little horn, 10 Which made a prodigious show of strength south
and east and toward the fairest of all lands. 11 It aspired to be as great
as the Prince of the host, supressed his regular offering and even threw
down his sanctuary. 12 The heavenly hosts were delivered up, and it raised
itself impiously against the regular offering and threw true religion to the
ground; in all that it did, it succeeded.

Again, in a later verse (Daniel 8:23) Daniel learns more about the little
horn: it refers to a king, 'harsh and grim, a master of strategem', who will
appear in the last days of the four kingdoms, 'at the end of wrath; for there
is an end to the appointed time .' (Daniel 8:19)

Daniel 824 His power shall be
great, he shall work havoc untold; he shall succeed in whatever he does. He
shall work havoc among great nations and upon a holy people. 25 His mind
shall be ever active, and he shall succeed in his crafty designs; he shall
conjure up great plans, and, when they least expect it, work havoc on many.
He shall challenge even the Prince of princes and be broken, but not by
human hands."

These verses summarize quite accurately the character and actions of the
infamous Antiochus IV Epiphanes, "the God Manifest," who will be discussed
more fully in another chapter. The 'end to the appointed time' has been
stressed by this writer, because the same phrase is used at critical junctures
in the text of Daniel to indicate a break in the historical narrative.

In verse 25 we learn that Antiochus is to be 'broken, but not by human
hands.' Indeed, Antiochus was broken, and not by human hands. While involved
in another one of his nefarious schemes at the Persian city of Tabae in 164
BC, he went insane and died.

Daniel 8 13 I heard
a holy one speaking and another holy one answering him, whoever he was. The
one said, 'For how long will the period of this vision last? How long will
the regular offering be suppressed, how long will impiety cause desolation,
and both the Holy Place and the fairest of all lands be given to be trodden
down?' 14 The answer came, 'For two thousand three hundred
evenings and mornings; then the Holy Place will emerge victorious.'

Daniel learns more in following verses:

15 . . . I saw standing before me one with the
semblance of a man; 16 At the same time, I heard a human voice calling to
him across the bend of the Ulai, 'Gabriel, explain the vision to this
man.' 17 He came up to where I was standing; . . . (and) said to
me, 'Understand, O man: the vision points to the time of the end.'

Who are these two angels? Daniel admits that he does not know who one of
them is, while the other is called by the name Gabriel. The fact that they
speak of the time of the end suggests that they come from the future. We can
safely assume that they represent entities or personalities that are important
to the future of Israel, and that they will be somehow associated with Persia,
the locale where Daniel is standing. Also, the Figure from across the bend of
the Ulai commands Gabriel to explain the vision to Daniel; it seems unlikely
that an angel of a lesser rank than Gabriel could give such a command.

We conclude that the other Figure is probably Michael, the Archangel of
Glory, who will be introduced by name in later chapters. Michael is the
archetype of the Victor, while Gabriel is the archetype of the Announcer.
<1> There are two Figures from Persia and the time of the end Who will
have these attributes; Michael must represent Baha'u'llah, the King of Glory,
while Gabriel must represent the Bab, the Forerunner.

This revelation concerning the 'time of the end' is too much for Daniel. He
goes into a trance and is revived by Gabriel, who now tells him of another
epoch, 'the end of wrath.' The end of wrath refers to the destruction of
Seleucid power in Palestine by the Maccabean revolt, when Antiochus will be
'broken but not by human hands.' We have already visited these verses, Daniel
8:23-26.

The 2300 evenings and mornings are 2300 exactly-completed years and refer
to the time of the end. The end of what? It is to be the end of the spiritual
desolation of the Holy Land, and the end of the time that the Holy Land will
'be given to be trodden down.' In these verses, Daniel is being told of
another epoch and another time, far distant in the future--in fact, of an
epoch exactly 2300 years away. But where is the point at which to begin the
counting of years?

There is only one point in time to start the counting of years that
generates a meaningful result: it is the same point in time that Gabriel gives
to Daniel in his vision during the first year of the reign of Darius (Daniel
9):

Daniel 9 25 . . . Know and
understand from the time that the word went forth that Jerusalem
should be restored and rebuilt . . .

It will be shown in that chapter that the starting date is the first day of
the Jewish month of Nisan, 457 BCE. This gives the end of the 'desolation' at
exactly

2300 Years (8:13) - 457 BCE, the first of Nisan + 1 a calendar
correction <2> ------------ = 1844 CE, the first of Nisan

This is the exact date of the Edict of Toleration that permitted the Jewish
people to resettle the Holy Land.

Notes for Chapter Four1. See note 2 of
Chapter 2. 2. When computing the time span between a date BCE and a date
CE, it must be remembered that there is one year missing in the calendar.
There is no year numbered zero in either the Christian or Muslim [or Baha'i]
calendars.

Chapter Five

GABRIEL'S CALENDAR Gabriel's
revelation to Daniel occurs in the first year of Darius the Mede, which would
be about 521 BCE. The chapter begins with Daniel lamenting his sins and those
of the people of Israel. Following a devout prayer for forgiveness, Gabriel
appears to Daniel and announces:

Daniel 9 22 '... O Daniel, I
have come out to give you wisdom and understanding. 23 At the beginning of
your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to tell it to you, for
you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the word and understand the
vision.'

What follows is a terse and profound prophecy that has bewildered readers
for 25 centuries: 24 'Seventy
Sevens are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the
transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint
the most holy. 25 'Know therefore and understand that from the
going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an
anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven Sevens. 'Then for sixty-two
Sevens it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled
time. And after the sixty-two Sevens, an anointed one will be cut off, and
shall have nothing; 26 'And the people of the prince
who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will come
with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are
decreed. 27 'And he shall make a strong covenant with many
for one Seven; and in the middle of the Seven, he shall
cause sacrifice and offering to cease; 'And in the train of abominations
shall come an author of desolation; then in the end, what has been decreed
concerning the desolation will be poured out.'

The word "one" ahead of the Seven in verse 27 is important and is found in
all the translations listed in the introduction to this book. But the
interested reader would do well to visit all translations to compare the
nuances of different translators.

As in the New International Version of the Bible, the original Hebrew word
"shabua" has been translated as "Seven" for reasons that will become apparent.
While most translations of Daniel substitute "a week of years" for the Hebrew
"shabua," the literal translation is "seven." <1> But in ancient number
mysticism, seven decades, or seven centuries -- indeed, any decadal successor
of Seven has an archetype of Seven. <2>

The sliding time scale of the Seven is evident in various biblical texts:
Jacob spent 7 years in servitude for Leah and 7 years more for Rachel
<3>; the Ark of the Covenant was in the land of the Philistines for 7
months <4>, and Jeremiah prophesied that the Israelites would be in
bondage for 7 decades. <5> Based upon II Chronicles 36:21, seven decades
is sometimes called a "sabbatic year."

Jeremiah's prophecy of the 7 decades is most interesting because it is
associated with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. We note, also,
Daniel's reference to Jeremiah's prophecy earlier in the same chapter that
seems to give us a clue to the fundamental meter of cadence in these
prophecies:

Daniel 9 2 ... I, Daniel,
perceived in the books the number of years which, according to the word of
Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of
Jerusalem, namely seventy years.

If we take the Seven as 7 years in verse 24, then the total time span of
Gabriel's prophecy is 7 sabbatic years (490 calendar years). But in verse 25,
Gabriel's convoluted prose seems to indicate that 7 sabbatic years is also
equal to 7 times '62-and-7' or 483 calendar years, an obvious fallacy. The
correct reading is to recognize that there is a Seven of years after the 69
Sevens of years that has already been decreed by the seventy Sevens of verse
24. It is during the implied last Seven of years, after the other 69, that the
coming of an 'anointed one' and His 'cutting off' are to occur.

The 24th verse seems to have an apparent meaning: seven sabbatic years (490
calendar years) are allotted to the Jewish people to finish the transgression,
to put an end to their sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to produce prophets and sealed prophecies, and to anoint their
Messiah. The years are to be counted from 'the going forth of the word to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem.'

There were four 'words going forth' to restore and rebuild the Temple
and/or Jerusalem. A 'word going forth' was a signed Proclamation, that is, a
Decree (see Dan 6:8). These four Decrees were:

1. The Decree to rebuild the Temple, given by Cyrus, King of Persia, in 534
BCE. Recorded in the first Chapter of Ezra, this Decree was partially
fulfilled.2. The Decree to rebuild the Temple, given by Darius, King of
Persia, in 519 BCE. Recorded in the sixth chapter of Ezra, this Decree was
essentially fulfilled.3. The Decree to finish and beautify the Temple,
given in the seventh year of his reign in 457
BCE by Artaxerxes, King of Persia. Recorded in the seventh
chapter of Ezra, this Decree was fulfilled and later addended by the fourth
Decree.4. The Decree to rebuild the gates of Jerusalem and of the Temple,
given by the same Artaxerxes in 444 BCE. Recorded in the second chapter of
Nehemiah, this Decree was also fulfilled. We shall soon see that using 457 BCE
as the starting point in Gabriel's calendar produces results that are in close
agreement with history. Admittedly, the precise dates of many ancient events
have been debated by various authorities, but a variance of a year or two will
not affect significantly the outcome of our investigation.

As to the words of Gabriel in verse 9:25, the 'going forth of the word,'
the exact date of this event is given in Ezra:

Ezra 79 ... for on the first
day of the first month he (Ezra) began to go up from Babylonia
...

This would be the first day of Nisan, 457 BCE. Another matter to be
addressed is the length of the year in verses 24-26. There seem to be only
three plausible choices:

(1) A solar year of 365.242 days, as measured by the time between
equinoxes. (2) A lunar year of 354.367 days, as measured by 12 lunations.
(3) A 'prophetic year' of 360 days, based upon a correlation of the dates
given in Genesis 7:11,24 & 8:3. It so happens that the use of solar years
produces a good result, since it places the Crucifixion of the Messiah at
about the right date:

But there is one year missing in the Christian solar calendar since Jesus
was said to have been born at One instead of at Zero. (The concepts of zero
and negative numbers are relatively modern and were unknown to the ancient
world.) Adjusting for the missing year produces the date 34 CE for the
Crucifixion.

Whether or not 34 CE is the correct date for the Crucifixion cannot be
ascertained by historians at this time. Suffice it to say that it is well
within the range of dates that have been proposed by various scholars. It will
also be shown that this method of dating Gabriel's calendar generates
reasonable numbers when other dates given in Daniel are introduced into the
equation.

Returning to the last Seven of years in Daniel 9:25, this would then
correspond to the period 27 CE to 34 CE. This would surely include the period
of Jesus' ministry and the events surrounding it. For instance, in Luke 3:1-3
we find that 'the word of God came to John' the Baptist in the fifteenth year
of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. This would be the year 29 CE. Luke 3:23 also
tells us that Jesus was about 30 years old when He began His ministry.

Most authorities accept the account of Matthew 2 for setting the date of
the Birth of Jesus which places it about 4 to 6 BCE. If we choose the probable
date to be about 5 BCE, then we can estimate that He began His ministry about
26 or 27 CE. Indeed, 27 CE has been taken by some excellent biblical scholars
<6> to be a good estimate.

Another difficulty comes in the decision as to the length of Jesus'
ministry. The synoptic Gospels seem to indicate that it was only about a year
long, while John indicates that it was about three years long. Since we are
again forced to admit that the historical date of the Crucifixion remains
uncertain, the date 34 CE remains as good as any. If so, the entire ministry
of Jesus would have been about seven years long, even though His fame may not
have spread throughout Palestine until the latter part of it. He would have
been 'not yet forty' when He died on the cross in 34 CE.

Now as to the meaning of the words of Gabriel: Daniel 9 25 '... there shall
be seven Sevens. Then for sixty-two Sevens it shall be built again with
squares and moat, but in a troubled time ...' The seven Sevens of years are
the time required to finish the rebuilding of Jerusalem, while the other
sixty-two Sevens of years tell us how long the city will lie finished before
the appearance of the Messiah.

The 'troubled time' followed a period of relative peace and security.
Alexander's conquest of Persia in 334 BCE and his untimely death eleven years
later produced several centuries of troubles for Judea and, indeed, for the
whole Near East. The struggle between 'north and south,' that is the subject
of Daniel 11, includes the troubled time and will be discussed in another
chapter.

We are now in a position to fill in the details of this portion of
Gabriel's highly abbreviated schedule of events:

GABRIEL'S CALENDAR FOR THE
COMING OF THE MESSIAH

EVENT

SEVENS OF YEARS

CHRISTIAN RECKONING ( BCE &
CE)

Artaxerxes' Decree

0

457 BCE

Finishing of Jerusalem

0 thru 6

457 BCE thru 409 BCE

Jerusalem Completed

7

408 BCE

Jerusalem lies completed

8 thru 68

407 BCE thru 26 CE

Messiah's ministry

69 to 70

27 CE to 34 CE

Messiah's crucifixion

70

34 CE

Now reconsider the following verses:

Daniel 9 26 '... and the people
of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its
end will come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations
are decreed. 27 'And he shall make a strong covenant with many
for one Seven; and in the middle of the Seven, he shall cause sacrifice and
offering to cease; ...'

The temptation is to place the Seven of verse 27 after the 69 Sevens of
verse 25 to round out the 70 Sevens of verse 24. However, there is no reason
for doing so, since we have demonstrated that the 70th Seven has already been
implied by the Decree in verse 24. The Seven of the strong covenant should not
be confused with the 70 Sevens decreed for the Jews to 'finish the
transgression,' etc., since the strong covenant concerns a period of time
after the Messiah has been 'cut off' and left with nothing.

That the 'strong covenant with many for one Seven' is made by the Messiah
can be deduced through an unprejudiced reading of the New Testament. For
example, in John we find Jesus in the Temple speaking to the Jews who ask Him
for a sign. Jesus replies with a cryptic promise:

John 2 19 '... Destroy this
temple and in three days I will raise it up.'

The author of John goes on to say that later believers in the physical
resurrection took the 'temple' to mean the 'temple' of Jesus' body. Be that as
it may, those present at the scene took it to mean the great Temple of
Jerusalem where Jesus was speaking. In fact, there are other instances
<7> where Jesus is quoted as saying that He was able to destroy the
Temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. In yet other places, we find
Jesus prophesying the literal destruction of the city and the Temple.
<8> And even after the death of Jesus, Stephen is accused at the Temple
before the council of elders:

Acts 613 "... This man never
ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law: 14 For we have
heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will
change the customs which Moses delivered to us." ...

Acts 71 And the high priest
said, "Is this so?"

In the beautiful and well reported speech that he offers in his defense,
Stephen denounces the priesthood but does not deny the charge.

Acts 748 "... the Most High does
not dwell in houses made with hands; ..."

Stephen is subsequently executed by stoning.

Jesus often said that He had come to fulfill the prophets, and in this
instance He must have been referring to the prophecy of Gabriel's calendar.
The "middle of the Seven" brings us to the middle of the fourth 'day,' and on
this day the city, the sanctuary, the offering and the sacrifice are to be
eliminated. But Jesus promises further that during the remaining 'three days'
of the Seven, He will rebuild the Temple.

But how is Jesus the Messiah to accomplish the destruction of such a solid
structure as the great Temple of Jerusalem? He gives us a clue:

Luke 19 43 "For the days shall
come upon you, when your enemies will cast a bank about you and surround
you, and hem you in on every side, 44 And dash you to the ground ..."

It will be through the instruments of war that He will bring down the walls
of Jerusalem and the Temple also. And what is to be the nature of the Temple
that Jesus is to build? Jesus gives his Apostles a most succinct answer:

Matthew 16 18 "And I tell you,
you are Peter (Petros), and on this rock I will build my church, and the
powers of earth shall not prevail against it."

The "Temple" is to be none other than His Church. And the "rock" upon which
He will build His Church will not be the sacred Rock Moriah on Mount Zion.
("... believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this
mountain or in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." <9>)
Rather, it is to be upon the "rock" of His Apostle Peter, and by implication,
upon the rest of His trusted Apostles that He will build His Church. Nor will
it be built of stones and cedar, but of a matrix of loving, faithful followers
and a new Law. Since He will destroy their beloved Temple, they will be cut
off from the grain offering and the shewbread. Jesus gives them a substitute:

Matthew 2626 Now as they were
eating, Jesus took the (Passover) bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave
it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

The body of Jesus' teachings and divine perfections is to be given to them
as their heavenly Manna, and His followers can symbolize their assimilation of
the offering by the simple act of breaking bread. But the Holy of Holies and
its sacred blood sacrifice are also to be lost forever, the sacrifice that
reconfirmed the Covenant and washed away their sins. Therefore, Jesus gives
them a substitute for this:

Matthew 26 27 And he took a cup,
and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of
it, all of you; 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Indeed, their beloved Ark of the Covenant had already ceased to exist as a
material artifact. Now, even their beloved Temple would soon be destroyed
along with its Torah, the Holy of Holies, the offering, and the blood
sacrifice. But the love of Jesus for his disciples, indeed for all humanity,
compelled Him to offer his own life as the ultimate Sacrifice that could be
re-enacted by the suppliant with nothing more than bread and wine.

Returning to Gabriel's prophecy, since we have assumed that a "Seven" means
a span of time with an archetype of seven. The one Seven in 9:27 could be 7
decades (i.e., a "sabbatic year"). Indeed, we shall soon see that interpreting
the one Seven here as 7 decades produces the only plausible result.

We
have already seen that by letting a Seven equal 7 years, the seventy Sevens of
verse 24 places the Crucifixion of Jesus at around 34 CE. Now, if the one
Seven in verse 27 is taken as 7 decades, then 'one Seven half spent' is 35
years. The prophecy of verse 27 then says that after 35 years, He shall cause
sacrifice and offering to cease. 35 years after the Crucifixion was 69 CE, and
the following year was 70 CE.

This, then, is the 'strong covenant with many for one Seven' spoken of by
the angel Gabriel in 9:27: Jesus promises to destroy and rebuild the Temple in
"seven days" following His Crucifixion. In the interim, His followers are
given handy substitutes for the sacred ceremonies that are to be destroyed
after the "third day."

At this juncture, it is well to recall the ominous words of Jesus
concerning some events to come:

Matthew 24 15 'So when you see
the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the
holy place (let the reader understand), 16 Then let those who are in Judea
flee to the mountains; 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take
what is in his house; 18 And let him who is in the field not turn back to
take his mantle.'

There were several sacrileges standing in the holy place before a tragic
uprising of the Jews. This was not the first time that a sacrilege would stand
in the holy place. The reader is to understand that the desolating sacrilege
prophesied by Jesus will have signs that parallel those that had already
occurred about 200 years before under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.

.... In fact, a "graven image" -- the conquering eagle of Rome --
would stand over the principal gate of the Temple <10>; the "mad
emperor" Caligula would order that a statue be built of his "Divine self" and
worshipped inside the Temple sanctuary (an order that, fortunately, was
rescinded) <11>; Herod, while sitting upon his throne, would make
an impious assertion of his own divinity <12> ; Roman soldiers
would make obscene gestures near the Temple during the Passover festival
<13>; Zealots would murder the High Priest Jonathan within the hallowed
precincts of the Temple. <14>

But there was one particular sacrilege that precipitated the desolation of
Judea. Shortly after the completion of the Temple in 66 CE, a sacrilege
occurred that would soon plunge Judea into a blood bath -- the Roman
procurator, Gessius Florus, looted the sacred treasury of the Temple of the
very considerable sum of seventeen talents. Since the treasury deposited in
the Temple was always considered inviolate to the secular administration, the
act infuriated the people of Judea and was the primary cause of a riot in
Jerusalem and the entire region. It was the beginning of a holocaust that even
caused the Roman historian Tacitus to bear witness to the omens that had
forewarned of it: the famine, the earthquake, the prodigies, and the awful
signs in the heavens that heralded the Fall of Jerusalem.

Eusebius tells us that the early Christians residing in and around
Jerusalem did, indeed, 'fly to the mountains,' not at the sight of these
sacrileges, but at a later sight. In April, 70 AD, Titus, who was later
to become emperor of Rome, marched his four legions ('the people of the prince
to come') to the walls of Jerusalem. [Daniel 9:26] It was at this
more tangible sign that the local Christians fled to the Gentile town of Pella
east of the Jordan River, where some say that they survived until the fifth
century. The Ebionites, the early Christian sect brought into Christianity
directly by Jesus and the Apostles, were among those emigrants. <15>

When Titus arrived, a civil war had been going on in Jerusalem for some
time, even within the sacred precincts of the Temple. The original
belligerents were two factions of Zealots led by Simon ben Gioras and John of
Giscala. <16> By 70 CE, the civil dissensions in Jerusalem had gone from
bad to worse with three factions of Zealots now fighting for supremacy.

Titus erected a wall of circumvallation around Jerusalem and established a
strict blockade. Towers and siege engines were brought to bear against
Jerusalem, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus:

Luke 19 43 'For the days shall
come upon you (Jerusalem), when your enemies will cast a bank about you and
surround you, and hem you in on every side...'

It is difficult to believe that the sacred sacrifice and offering could
properly exist under such circumstances. However, the sacrifice and offering
were not technically ended until the 17th of Tammuz (midsummer), 70 CE. By
that time, the streets were running with blood, and the sufferings of the
masses of people within the city have been rarely if ever matched in the
annals of history. The crazed Zealots murdered men, women, and children for
morsels of food, even those who were in the very act of swallowing. The
wretched inhabitants, creeping out of the city by night to search for food for
their wives and children, were usually caught and crucified by Titus' soldiers
or were robbed by the zealot sentinels on their return to the gates.

In spite of temporary coalitions of the fragmented Zealot parties against
the Roman legions, it took only a few months for the well-disciplined forces
of Titus to take the city. The end came 'with a flood' of armed soldiers. On
the ninth of Ab, indeed on the VERY
ANNIVERSARY of the burning of the first Temple by
Nebuchadnezzar, the apartment next to the sanctuary was set afire by the Roman
soldiers. The Jews, thinking that God had, indeed, abandoned His sanctuary,
rushed with frantic cries to the spot and threw themselves into the flames in
an attempt to save the Holy of Holies. Even Titus himself rushed to the scene
with his personal staff of officers and men in a futile attempt to rescue a
part of the holy precinct. But with the sudden and unexpected turn of events
in their favor, the Roman soldiers behaved like savages. Josephus <17>,
an eyewitness, describes what followed:

"One would have thought that the hill on which the Temple stood was
seething hot, full of fire in every part, that the blood was greater in
quantity than the fire, and that those who were slain were more numerous than
those who slew them. The ground was nowhere visible because of the dead bodies
that lay upon it, and the soldiers were forced to go over heaps of bodies as
they ran after those who fled before them." -Josephus

With the final collapse, the Romans rushed throughout the Temple and the
city, butchering young and old alike. At last, becoming satiated with blood,
the Roman soldiers attempted to plunder the homes of the citizens of
Jerusalem, but the putrefying corpses were so sickening that they were forced
to abandon the project. Those few Jews who escaped immediate death were
captured to spend their lives as slaves in the mines or as gladiators in Roman
arenas.

Thus was fulfilled the remainder of the prophecy of Jesus:

Luke 19 44 '... and dash you to
the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one
stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your
visitation.'

After the ninth of Ab, 70 CE, the city of Jerusalem was no longer the
center of Jewish life. Deprived of their beloved Temple and the City, the Jews
were forced to give up the offering, the daily sacrifice, and even pilgrimages
to the Temple. Through a program fashioned by the great rabbi Johannan ben
Zakkai, the Jews in exile learned to substitute prayer, works of piety, and
study of the Holy Scripture. Thus the awesome spiritual forces unleashed by
Jesus the Messiah produced the result that the Jewish priests would not
willingly accept at their 'time of visitation': the house of the Lord ceased
to be a den of thieves.

The ninth of Ab became, and remains, a day of fasting. To this day, the
Jewish wedding ceremony commemorates the destruction of the Temple each time
the groom crushes the nuptial cup.

And what of the "Temple" that Jesus had promised to build? We recall that
with the Crucifixion, the Messiah was cut off and left with nothing. Jesus was
indeed left with nothing, without a Church, without even a Book. In the "three
days" (3 decades) following the collapse of Jerusalem, Jesus built His
"Temple." By about 90 CE, after two days, the Gospels and numerous other
Christian works had been written, and the Christians were thereby given a
"foundation." By about 100 CE, three days after the Fall of Jerusalem, the
primitive Church had become solidly "constructed" in numerous cities
throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Jesus then "dedicated" His Church by
delivering a prophetic Book to John, His favorite disciple. That Book, the
Apocalypse [aka Revelation], is the only one that purports to be a direct
revelation from Jesus Christ. To the best of our knowledge, the Apocalypse was
"delivered" to John about 104 CE, the three-and-a-half-day point after the
elimination of the daily sacrifice. <18> Thereby, Jesus the Messiah
fulfilled His 'strong covenant with many for one Seven.' Recall

John 2

19 "... Destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up.'

The delivery of the Apocalypse to John, after so many
years had passed and after almost everyone had died who had seen Jesus at
first hand, explains the enigmatic remark of Jesus near the end of the fourth
Gospel:

John 21 21 When Peter turned and
saw (the young disciple John following them), he said to Jesus, "Lord, what
about this man?" 22 Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain
until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!"

Even after the Fall of Jerusalem, there were more horrors to follow. In
118, only fourteen years after the completion of Messiah's Temple, another
insurrection arose against Rome by the Jews in exile. It reached Judea in 132,
where it was led by the false Messiah Simon bar Cocheba, commanding an army of
four hundred thousand men. Bar Cocheba was able to destroy two armies
dispatched by Rome before the emperor Hadrian sent a third army under his
ablest general Julius Severus to quell the rebellion. Severus ultimately
defeated bar Cocheba at Bethar in 135, killing a half million Jews in the
process. Thousands of women and children were again carted off into slavery,
and, for two hundred years, no Jew was allowed in Judea.

Simon bar Cocheba thereby became the 'author of desolation' in the last
sentence of Gabriel's calendar:

Daniel 9 27 '... And in the
train of abominations shall come an author of desolation; then in the end,
what has been decreed concerning the desolation will be poured out.

After this last disaster, Jerusalem lay a desolate ruin. It was given a
Latin name, a new temple was erected to Jupiter, and a statue of Hadrian -- a
final abomination, was set up over the Rock Moriah.

So bitter was the victory over the Jews that Hadrian did not pronounce the
customary congratulatory phrase before the Roman Senate. A toast became
common at Roman feasts: "Hierosolyma Est Perdida!" ("Jerusalem is
destroyed!"), immediately answered by the guests shouting "Hurrah!" The
initial letters of the toast (H.E.P.) soon replaced the phrase, and has come
down to us as the traditional cheer "Hep! Hep! Hurrah!"

Even after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity, the
struggle was not over. The later accession of Julian the Apostate to the
throne of Rome resulted in the abolition of Christianity as the official faith
of the realm, and the Jews were invited to rebuild their Temple. The Jews,
believing that the restoration of Israel was at hand, donated money and labor
from all over the empire. But, whether due to human or divine agencies, no
sooner had the work begun when fires and terrifying explosions rocked the site
of the restoration on the Temple Mount. Christians and other enemies of the
Jews took these events as proof of divine displeasure, and the circumstances
were repeated with exaggerated details and supernatural embellishments.

Ironically, the strife between Christians and Jews in the Holy Land mostly
came to an end when Umar I, the renowned second and "rightly guided" Caliph of
Islam, took Jerusalem in 637. Umar brought order to the area and treated both
Christians and Jews with respect in accordance with the command of Muhammad
that 'the people of the book' should not be harmed. Nevertheless, there were
several curious events surrounding the takeover of Jerusalem that have had
long-enduring effects.

In the first place, Sophronius, the Christian patriarch of Jerusalem at the
time, invited Umar to take over the city without bloodshed. But Sophronius
stipulated a proviso that Umar must strictly prohibit the Jews from dwelling
in Jerusalem. Umar apparently accepted this condition. <19> Although
some Jews (about seventy families) were allowed to live there under succeeding
Caliphs, the city ceased to be either a Jewish or a Christian city (except for
a brief time during the Crusades) for the next twelve centuries. In fact, the
repeal of the contract between Umar and Sophronius did not officially occur
until the first of Nisan, 1844. On that date, the Ottomans signed the Edict of
Toleration that lifted the ban on Jewish immigration to the area, which
inadvertently laid the groundwork for the creation of the modern state of
Israel. The first of Nisan, 1844, as has been said elsewhere, was exactly 2300
years after the day that Ezra left Babylonia to rebuild the Temple in
compliance with the first Decree of Artaxerxes. The Edict of Toleration marks
the end of the 'transgression that makes desolate.'

Soon after Umar's takeover of Jerusalem, Umar began a search for the site
of the sacred sanctuary of the ancient Temple site. This, of course, was the
Rock Moriah, the altar location where Abraham had attempted unsuccessfully to
sacrifice his son. Arabs being descendants of Abraham, the site played an
important part in Muslim tradition just as it did for the Jews. It was at this
site that Muhammad was reputed to have taken His mystical night journey to the
seventh heaven and to have sat at the right hand of God. Umar found the site,
by then desecrated beyond recognition by centuries of abuse by Christians. In
fact, the Christians had covered the Rock with dung and other refuse.
<4> The Orthodox Church had not built a church over the site because of
the prophecy of Jesus:

Luke 13

35 'Behold, your house shall be left unto you
desolate.'

Umar cleaned and purified the site, and built a
temporary wooden shrine over it. Under a later Caliph, the shrine was rebuilt
into a permanent and magnificent mosque that ultimately became known as the
'Dome of the Rock.'

The golden Dome is the most conspicuous landmark in Jerusalem. To the
Muslims, the Dome of the Rock has symbolized their political and spiritual
authority over both the Jews and the Christians. It stands over the Holy Place
and represents the ultimate insult to the Jewish people. It has served for
over thirteen centuries as a tangible barrier between them and their Holy of
Holies. Whether the Dome will ever be taken down and the Jewish Temple rebuilt
may be an irrelevant question. The human psyche seems to have evolved forever
beyond the idea of a living animal sacrifice being offered to a benevolent God
within a foul, bloody, flyblown "holy" chamber.

We are now in a position to fill in the remainder of Gabriel's calendar:

EVENT

SABBATIC YEARS AFTER ARTAXERXES'
DECREE

CHRISTIAN RECKONING
(CE)

Messiah's Crucifixion

7

CE 34

Offering and blood sacrifice terminated

7 1/2

CE 69-70

Messiah's "Temple" is completed

8

CE 104

Author of Desolation

.

CE 132

The Author of Desolation appeared 84 Sevens of years afterArtaxerxes'
Decree.

The illegitimate caliphate came to power 666 years after theprobable
date of the Birth of Jesus. (666 is the "number ofblasphemy" in
Revelation 13.) It was abolished thirty-foursabbatic years after
Artaxerxes' Decree and twenty-seven sabbaticyears after the
Crucifixion.

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Robert Riggs is a member of the Baha'i Faith
living in the United States. Much of the material on this
homepage consists of extracts from existing Baha'i publications, but also
included are a number of insights and comments about prophecies which are
entirely the author's own understanding and, as such, do not necessarily
represent the official position of the Baha'i Faith or its teachings.